South Korean surgeons and doctors saved the life of a North Korean defector by pulling bullets and horrifying parasites out of his body after he fled Kim Jong Un’s regime last month, according to a video and report released Tuesday by CNN.

South Korean surgeon Lee Cook-Jong showed how his team helped defector Oh Chong Song on November 13 after he had been shot by North Korean soldiers while he escaped the totalitarian regime by crossing the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, that separates the two countries.

Oh was transported via helicopter to Ajou University Hospital in Seoul, the South Korean capital city, and was “unstable” and “dying of low blood pressure” when he arrived, Lee told CNN.